“Red-eye” is a phenomenon in flash photography where a flash is reflected within a subject's eye and appears in a photograph as a red dot where the black pupil of the subject's eye would normally appear. The unnatural glowing red of an eye is due to internal reflections from the vascular membrane behind the retina, which is rich in blood vessels. This objectionable phenomenon is well understood to be caused in part by a small angle between the flash of the camera and the lens of the camera. This angle has decreased with the miniaturization of cameras with integral flash capabilities. Additional contributors include the relative closeness of the subject to the camera and ambient light levels.
The red-eye phenomenon can be minimized by causing the iris to reduce the opening of the pupil. This is typically done with a “pre-flash”, a flash or illumination of light shortly before a flash photograph is taken. This causes the iris to close. Unfortunately, the pre-flash is an objectionable 0.2 to 0.6 seconds prior to the flash photograph. This delay is readily discernible and easily within the reaction time of a human subject. Consequently the subject may believe the pre-flash is the actual photograph and be in a less than desirable position at the time of the actual photograph. Alternately, the subject must be informed of the pre-flash, typically loosing any spontaneity of the subject captured in the photograph.
Those familiar with the art have developed complex analysis processes operating within a camera prior to invoking a pre-flash. Various conditions are monitored prior to the photograph before the pre-flash is generated; the conditions include the ambient light level and the distance of the subject from the camera. Such a system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,070,355, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Although that invention minimizes the occurrences where a pre-flash is used, it does not eliminate the need for a pre-flash.
Digital cameras are becoming more popular and smaller in size. Digital cameras have several advantages over film cameras. Digital cameras eliminate the need for film as the image is digitally captured and stored in a memory array for display on a display screen on the camera itself. This allows photographs to be viewed and enjoyed virtually instantaneously as opposed to waiting for film processing. Furthermore, the digitally captured image may be downloaded to another display device such as a personal computer or color printer for further enhanced viewing. Digital cameras include microprocessors for image processing and compression and camera systems control. It is possible to exploit the computation capabilities of such microprocessors for performing operations to improve the red-eye detection and elimination. Thus, what is needed is a method of better tools for eliminating red-eye phenomenon within, for example, a digital camera having a flash unit without the distraction of a pre-flash.
U.S. Patent Application 2002/0150306 (Baron), which is hereby incorporated by reference, describes a method for the removal of flash artefacts by capturing two digital images of a subject, one with flash and one without flash, and subtracting one image from the other to provide an artefact image which is then thresholded and subtracted from the flash image. However, the technique is directed to flash artefacts in general, and not specifically to red-eye removal. There is no attempt to identify red-eye regions as compared to any other flash-induced artefacts. Indeed, there is no attempt to identify particular regions at all, since the technique is simply one of subtraction and thresholding.